Drawing Angela on April 19 2012

I described in my last posting how I had gone to the life drawing class with a plan (with the expectation that I would progress into a new way of working), the plan didn't work, and I tended to revert back into a comfort zone of known techniques. So two days later it was with a tremendous relief and extreme excitement that the totally unexpected suggestion, made by our tutor Paul Fowler at Extreme Poses at Pegasus Art in Stroud, propelled me into a new experience of drawing, of mark making and of output. Right at the start of the morning he asked us to tape together two pencils, perhaps an HB and a 4B, and to draw making two parallel lines of marks. Immediately I realised I was creating a type of drawing and a character of mark making which I had been attempting in the past, but more significantly it strongly related to my (failed) plan of two days ago. Quite a coincidence!. The result using pencils is the first drawing below.

For the second drawing I taped together two fineliner pens, 0.3mm and 0.8mm. The beauty of this method is that twice as many marks are made, and twice as many lines are drawn. There is introduced an increased intensity to the drawing making process. The two pens can make marks at the same time or alternatively one pen can be used then a very quick change can be made to the other, and back again as different thicknesses of line are required.

Below I taped together two Derwent tinted charcoal pencils ('sand' and 'natural') and because of their marked difference both in colour and tonal value I felt it more appropriate to use them alternately moving from dark to light as required rather than both together (if you see what I mean).

Finally I taped together a 0.8mm fineliner pen and a thick graphite stick, and again felt the best way to utilise their potential was to use them alternately as required.
Two drawings of the same pose, the first on A1 and the second on A2.

I'm very grateful for Paul's innovative proposal. I can see it holds great promise and I shall be experimenting with this approach again.